On December 11, Mahua Moitra filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging her removal from the Lower House of Parliament, following the Ethics Committee’s ruling that she had accepted gifts and illicit gratification from a businessman in order to advance his interests.
According to India Today, the Housing Committee of Parliament formally asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to request that Mahua Moitra, the expelled MP of the Trinamool Congress, leave her official bungalow. Only a few days had passed since Moitra was banished from the Lok Sabha in the cash-for-query case.
On December 11, after the Ethics Committee found that the TMC leader had accepted gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman in order to further his interests, the leader of the party filed a case in the Supreme Court challenging her expulsion from the Lower House of Parliament.
Moitra had claimed that the government was using a parliamentary panel as a weapon to subdue the opposition. She informed reporters that there was no proof that she received money or gifts, and that she had been found guilty of violating an unexistent code of ethics.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi had stated that Moitra was found guilty of “unethical conduct” and contempt of the House in the Ethics Committee report for disclosing her User ID and password for the Lok Sabha Member’s Portal to unauthorized individuals, which had a devastating effect on national security.
